After going down 1-4 to Canada in the opening match, Saina and Co. seemed to get their act together as they won all the matches, except the first women’s doubles.
World No 10 Saina started the proceedings as she saw off Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen 21-14 21-19 in a 35-minute opening match to give India a 1-0 lead. However, Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram suffered a 13-21 16-21 loss to Australia’s Gronya Somerville and Renuga Veeran within half an hour to concede the advantage.
Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka, 16, then dumped Jennifer Tam 21-17 21-13 to once again bring India back in the contest. Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant then defeated Louisa Ma and Ann-Louise Slee 21-19 21-11 in the second women’s doubles match to help India take an unassailable 3-1 lead.
Anura Prabhudesai, the 19-year-old from Goa, then brushed aside Zecily Fung 21-6 21-7 in 18 minutes to seal the contest 4-1 for India. India’s qualification for the knockout stage will depend on their next match against top seeds Japan on Wednesday.